


Defense

by AmyNChan



Category: Ghost Hunt
Genre: DONE!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 12:31:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18521581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmyNChan/pseuds/AmyNChan
Summary: Normal client, normal procedure.  So why does Mai have a bad feeling?(oneshot)





	Defense

**Author's Note:**

> HUGE thanks to Snavej, who helped me by betaing this and making me do proper research.

The day began normally enough.  SPR had opened, Mai had gotten some filing done, and Naru and Lin had screened through the English files that she couldn’t read.  Then Mai had made tea and distributed it accordingly.  After that, a client had come through the front door, which prompted another round of tea.  While the potential client had waited for Naru to interview him, Mai had taken silent stock.  He had been a much older man with deep creases in his face.  He must have frowned often.  Nevertheless, Naru emerged from his office and began the interview, leaving Mai to retreat to her desk at the opposite end of the room while Lin could took the necessary notes.

Mai watched silently as the interview continued to evolve, trying to get a feel for the man whose hands were clenched.  He was obviously upset by the goings on in his house, which included furniture being moved around, knocking, and a disembodied voice that called his name every night.  Naru, in his own way, seemed to be interested as he drummed his fingers lightly on the file before him.  Mai felt sympathy for the poor man, but it somehow felt reserved.  Wary, almost.

“When did the activity begin?”

“Two weeks ago.”

Lin’s fingers tapped rapidly across the keyboard, taking down the data. 

“Is there anything to your memory that may have triggered these events?”

“No.  I was out—”

Every head turned as the bell above the door sounded off.  Osamu Yasuhara stood for a moment before bowing courteously to everyone in the room.  “Excuse me.”

Mai welcomed her friend and coworker into their office, leading him back to her desk so as not to interrupt the interview further.  She did not, however, miss the altered demeanor of their guest.  He watched Yasu with a wary eye and Mai wondered if her friend perhaps resembled someone he might have known in the past.

Her instincts disagreed, so she gently pushed the notion to the side.  Yasu would never have done anything to offend this man, intentionally or no, and that was the only other possibility she could come up with.

“What happened?  You’re usually on time,” asked she in a low voice as Naru returned to the question at hand.  Yasu smiled with a lighthearted shrug.

“The train couldn’t keep up with this old man,” joked he.  “You know, in my day, we would have to walk across rice paddies to get to work.”

“How terrible,” said Mai.  A smile bloomed on her face.  “I suppose that made you late all the time?”

“No more than you.” 

Yasu’s cheeky comment would have been met with the most undignified raspberry she could muster if there hadn’t been a client in the room.  Instead, she settled for a silent glare — one that would never be as effective as Naru’s — before pointedly returning to eavesdropping on the interview.  It was perfect timing, given that Naru appeared to have just finished setting up details for when they would be arriving.

“If that will be all,” said Naru, getting up.  Mai supposed she would have to ask for the details later or simply wait to be briefed on the way.

“A moment, please.”  The client made no move to stand, but he held his hand up in what Mai supposed was meant to be a placating gesture.  It somehow made her feel uneasy.  “May I ask who will be investigating my house?”

“Only qualified individuals will enter the premises and all keys will be returned upon the close of the investigation,” stated Naru.  “If you find yourself doubting our integrity, you are also free to change the locks to your house after our investigation is complete.  Of course, we have never had a complaint from a previous client regarding missing items.  My assistant can provide you with references if you require them.”

Mai supposed that should have been the end of it — after all, there were some clients who feared for their possessions and security when asking a business to investigate their house for any reason — but was surprised to see that the elderly man’s fears had not been assuaged.  In fact, he seemed more perturbed than before.

“I still retain the right to ask anyone to stay off of my private property.”  Mai’s feeling of uneasiness returned, stronger than before.  “I intend to use it.”

“If you do not allow our professionals to enter the property, how can you expect them to investigate it?” asked Naru.  Mai knew he was close to a headache.  “If you did not intend to let us on your property, then you have simply wasted my time.”  The boss made to get up.

The man’s face flushed in anger.  The hairs on the back of Mai’s neck stood on end as he exploded. 

“I will not have criminal delinquents in my home and near my family!”

The temperature in the room shifted downward a degree or so.  Naru’s eyes had taken on a hard glint. 

“Do you have proof that any one of the professionals on my team are ‘criminal delinquents’?”

The elder man seemed not to notice that Naru’s voice had dipped dangerously low on the accusation.  Instead, he turned his head towards Yasuhara and pointed an accusatory finger. “This person has committed public acts of indecency.  I don’t trust him near my family or my possessions.”

Yasu’s jaw dropped and a sincere look of shock crossed his face.  Even without it, Mai knew that this man had stepped over a line.  She took a step in front of her friend on instinct alone.

“And what, exactly, do you think he has done?” asked Naru.  Mai turned her head towards her boss in disbelief.  He wanted to play diplomat _now_?

“I refused to take a picture,” stated the man.  “Surely you understand. But I cannot allow a _sodomite_ —”

“Sir.  You will choose your next words _very carefully_.”  The frostiness of Naru’s glare halted the man in his tracks.  “If your allegation has nothing to do with an actual crime, then you will either accept my employees or utilize another business.”

There was a tense silence in the room.  Mai looked directly at the man, doing her best to temper both the deep disdain and the smug pride she felt away from her face.  She was a professional and she could be better than this man.  Even when he jutted his chin out towards Naru and narrowed his eyes.

“If I cannot decide who comes and goes within my own home, then perhaps I _will_ take my business elsewhere.”

Naru nodded tersely, reached into his pocket, withdrew his wallet, and procured a card from its depths.  After returning everything to its place, he held out the card with one hand.  Mai could see his other hand purposefully empty and felt smug victory as offense settled over the man’s face. 

“This is a card for Minami’s Psychic Research Council.  You will find researchers to fit your caliber there.”

Whatever the man had expected, it was not this.  Regardless, he accepted the card with one hand, perhaps hoping to inflict the same offense on Naru that Naru had inflicted upon him.  It did not work.  Once the card had been transferred, Naru picked up the file he had been reading and swept towards his office without so much as a second glance at their visitor.  A small _ding_ sounded from Lin’s laptop before it was closed, telling Mai that he had deleted all the notes he had taken during the interview.  He, too, exited the room.

The man was left alone with Mai and Yasuhara, the former of which stood to her fullest height in front of the latter.  She held a stony expression on her face, finally understanding why she had been so unsettled around this man. 

“I believe it is time for you to leave.”

“Yes,” agreed the man, gathering his belongings.  Without another word or backwards glance, he exited the facility. 

Mai stood for a full minute after he had left, forcing herself to breathe and calm down.  Once she felt their guest would not return, she turned back towards Yasu, confusion and concern settling on her brow. 

“Are you okay?”

Upon hearing her, he seemed to simply blink away his shock and a smile fell over his face easily.  Almost too easily. 

“I’ll be fine.  At least now I can say that I’ve been accused of public indecency.  Though I always assumed they would have to find out about my stint during the Meiji period before that would happen.”

Mai allowed herself a smile at that, but did not chuckle.  She was more concerned with how Yasu had deliberately closed his eyes to make his smile seem more authentic than it was and how that same smile was all too tight around the edges.

“Yasu, you know that if you ever need to talk, I’ll be here for you, right?” asked Mai, gently cutting into Yasu’s faux chuckles.  It was to her relief that his smile became somewhat more authentic when his eyes opened at her offer.  Authentic and warm.

“Thanks, Mai.  I’ll keep that in mind.”

“No problem.”

* * *

* * *

He had not talked to her.

Yasuhara knew that talking about it probably would have been beneficial.  He knew that it would probably be the best thing for him at the moment — to be open about how the client from last week had shaken him.  But he hadn’t.  He didn’t know why, but he hadn’t.

Since that client, very little had happened.  A few requests had come in.  Yasuhara was part of the fielding team that determined which cases would be better to take and which could most likely be explained by way of something quite natural.  Perhaps he simply found himself too busy to talk about what was bothering him. 

Perhaps, but no.  He hadn’t talked about it simply because he hadn’t.  He had found excuses not to.  If he really were busy, he wouldn’t be here, talking to the boss about his latest assignment.  Or rather, talking about the glaring mistake he had made on his latest assignment.

The file lay between them, slender and basic.  Just as Yasuhara had submitted it.  He had unearthed the rudimentary data on the property.  Who owned it and when.  The passing of the deed from family to family.  Dates of big events and a basic screening to see which ones had been paranormal.

But he’d missed one.  A rather important one at that.  And the boss was not pleased, to say the least.

“I found this with the assistance of a search engine,” said Naru, pointing directly at the new information.  From the page, Yasuhara saw that the information was on the third page and winced.  He typically went five pages in.  This time he’d gone no more than two.  The mishap could have cost them an investigation.  “This is a novice mistake.”

He knew that.  He knew that and still he had made it. 

“It won’t happen again.”

His boss looked at him, pinning him with a glare that would have made Yasuhara wonder if Naru had some sort of eye power at any other time.  Now, however, he only wanted to be removed from the man’s stare.  His wish was granted when Naru hefted a perturbed sigh and moved his face to his palm.

The action was so out of the ordinary that Yasuhara briefly wondered if he were hallucinating.  Naru’s display of disdain was typically showcased by backhanded remarks and dry wit.  To be so open was… a tad disorienting, if he were being honest.

“Yasuhara, to waste your mental capabilities on the words of a pumpkin is idiotic.”

Yasuhara stared. 

“What—”

“Don’t bother trying to waste my time or yours by denying it.  You’ve already done that with this file.”

The barb stung and Yasuhara winced under its pressure, but he ended up nodding.  He knew exactly who Naru meant, so there was no need to beat around the bush about it.  At the confirmation, Naru continued.

“Being gay — or bisexual or pansexual or whatever it is that you identify as — has no mark on your intelligence, your capabilities, or your professionalism.  It is simply a part of your existence, just as which family you are born into and what your skin tone is.  Allowing the opinion of one ill-informed peon to muddy your mental processes with shame concerning an aspect of yourself that you were assigned at birth is idiotic.”

“Wow, boss, way to jump the gun there,” said Yasuhara, coughing up some laughter for effect.  “If you’re going to ask about my orientation, at least buy me dinner first.”

Naru rose an eyebrow. 

“You had been speaking with Mai about an oncoming date for the past fortnight and asked her for her fashion advice.  You have consistently mentioned his wavy hair, his chocolate eyes, and his dimpled smile.  His name is Tsuyoi Koibito and your date, if loud gossip is to be believed, happened last week at the café three blocks away and ended with you paying the bill on the promise that he would pay for your next date.  It is perfectly possible for a narrow-minded individual to choose a psychic research facility that is not far out of the way, which makes it plausible for him to have seen the end of your date.  Do not insult my intelligence again.”

_Scary_ was the first word that came to Yasuhara’s mind.  A bit tactless, too.  Maybe the right analogy was wisdom in the form of a boxing glove to the face.  And coming from Naru, who seemed to simply allow so many forms of criticism to simply roll of his back… The previous advice made Yasu chuckle. 

“That almost sounds like advice on how to handle my own mental state.”

“Because it is.”  Yasu’s eyes snapped to Naru’s face.  He had both hands folded atop the file, his thumbs twitching in the open.  He stared resolutely at the file, as though the conversation were now with it instead of the human being in front of him.  “My brother and I were often ridiculed for the situation we were born into, so to that extent I can understand your struggle, but my brother faced an additional hardship.

“Eugene was an empathetic individual.  He was too loud for me, but too quiet for the rest of the world.  He enjoyed exploration and found himself in many ill-fated situations because of it.  After these misadventures, our mother’s tea would calm him the best.  He had a variety of hobbies and connected with others well.  Many girls flocked to him because of his nurturing personality, only to spurn him when they realized he was not romantically available to them.”

Naru paused and Yasuhara was grateful for it.  The silence gave him some time to absorb the fact that his boss was at once openly discussing the brother whose existence he had hidden for a year as well as telling him that his brother had been gay.  It felt like a lot to take in.

“However,” said Naru, recapturing Yasuhara’s attention.  “If one were to think that gayness were the only thing that made my brother worth knowing at all, then that would be blatantly ignoring everything else that my brother was.  He was a stupid medium and a reckless explorer.  His skills and personality encompassed far more than his availability as a romantic and sexual partner.”

“Isn’t that ignoring a part of who he is, though?” asked Yasuhara.  So far, everything Naru had said seemed almost arrogant and ignorant.  “Sexuality is an important part of who we are.  It would be wrong to hide it because of some outdated views…”

Naru gave a mirthless chuckle. 

“You think along similar lines.  Eugene said the same to me when I discussed it with him.  I will tell you what I told him:  your sexuality is your own business.  Who you are or are not attracted to is your own business.  If, for any reason, a person walks into our office and cannot respect the fact that your romantic and sexual affiliations are none of their concern, then we are under no obligation to interact with them until they can treat you as an entire human being with the skill sets that they require in order to solve their problem.”

Yasuhara sat for a moment, mulling it over.  Naru’s reaction was…not what he had expected from an ally.  But it made sense.  For Naru, one of the most important aspects of a person was whether or not that person was able to complete the task they were assigned.  And he had no patience for those who did not see the issue the same way.

It wasn’t the loud defense and support he supposed he had been expecting, but it felt genuine.  The kind of support only Naru could give.  Because only a kind of person like Naru would give it like that.  Yasuhara chuckled at the thought of Naru doing something like wearing a rainbow shirt to the office in support.  The idea was ridiculous.  Not Naru at all.

As soon as the sound left Yasuhara’s lips, Naru handed him the file with a serious expression on his face.  “I need information on this property.  From the early Kamakura period until now.”

Yasuhara was jerked back into the moment by the shift in conversation as he held a hand out for the file.  “Back to work, then?”

“If you have no further doubts concerning your placement on this team, then yes.”

Yasuhara chuckled again, any remnants of tension washing away with the statement.  Naru hadn’t meant to make a joke, of course, but Yasuhara couldn’t help but feel that it was one.  A joke in the fact that it was so Naru that it couldn’t be anything else. 

“Doubts?  Me?  Never.”

Yasuhara watched as Naru nodded and returned to his work, a clear dismissal to anyone who knew him.  And given that he had worked for the man for two years now, he knew what a dismissal from him looked like.  Feeling somewhat satisfied, Yasuhara left the office and closed the door behind him.  He released a big breath.

“Hey.”

The man turned to his friend, who sat at her desk with mountains of paperwork on either side of her.  Instead of doing her work, she had her eyes on him instead.  Mai observed him for a moment, her eyes darting all over his face. 

“Naru kept you in there a while.  Are you okay?”

“Why? Would you like the attentions of our one and only Big Boss?” Yasuhara grinned and gave his coworker a suggestive wiggle of the eyebrows.  Mai squeaked and dragged him back to their desks, where she promptly stuck out a tongue for his cheek.

“Not so close to the door!” Mai hissed this lowly in his direction as she worked to get rid of her blushing.  Yasuhara felt pride in the fact that he had dodged her question when she surprised him.  “I meant what I asked, though—” she looked him in the eye “—are you okay?”

Yasuhara contemplated the question.  A few nice words and sentiments, as stunted and heartwarming as they had been, wouldn’t change his situation.  He was a gay man in a transforming society.  Encouraged by the rights he and his generation had fought for and won, discriminated against by the oppressors from generations passed.  He had the right to go on a date with a cute boy, but his work life was affected by the older client that had overheard him and his date discuss the bill and joke about who paid for the first date.

But was it?  Mai had leapt to his defense.  Naru had refused intriguing business on his behalf.  Lin had washed SPR’s hands of the man and his views in front of his face.  It wasn’t a change of victory for the entire world, but it was support for _his_ entire world.  Support to do what he wanted in his free time and enough support to know that he would always be safe here.  And the fact that two of the most business minded and professionally oriented people he knew had refused to accept that kind of behavior was…

Well, it wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t what he expected, but it was certainly something good.  A sign of good things to come.

Yasuhara smiled.  “I wasn’t.  But I’m okay now, boss.”

Mai raised an eyebrow curiously, then looked behind him to Naru’s closed door.  Her thoughts displayed so obviously on her face that Yasuhara had to laugh.

“Wondering how our compassionate big boss made me feel better?”

“I — what — of course he — he just — I didn’t —”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you _aaaall_ about it.”  Yasuhara winked and Mai blinked in return, her flustered demeanor subsiding as curiosity took its place.  “It all began when Naru took me into his big, strong arms—”

“Yasu!”

The man in question laughed, feeling happier and lighter than he had in a while.  He was a researcher, a jokester, a friend, a colleague, a gay man…

And he was Yasuhara Osamu.  Anyone who didn’t like that could leave.  He’d have his world to support him.

**Author's Note:**

> This...took a while. ^^; buuuut, here it is. ^^;


End file.
